West Indies captain Chris Gayle struck Australia fast bowler Brett Lee for 27 runs in one over at last year's World T20 so Ireland's attack could be forgiven for fearing the worst. West Indies face Ireland, looking for success, on the first day of this year's World Twenty20 on Friday. Gayle, whose 117 against South Africa in the inaugural 2007 edition remains the only century at a World Twenty20. This month the West Indies beat Ireland by 6 wickets in a ODI in Jamaica but trying to apply conclusions from other forms of cricket to T20 is with risk.

At last year's World T20 they beat Bangladesh and at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean they knocked Pakistan out of the tournament. The defeat on Friday would lead to more frustration amongst their fans who recently saw the team beaten by Zimbabwe in a ODI, although the West Indies did go on to win that series. He said they have a very good chance of winning this competition and they are at home and that gives them an advantage.

It was in 1969 that Ireland made the cricket world sit up and take notice by dismissing the touring West Indies for just 25 on what remains one of the most famous days in Irish cricket history. Now Ireland are coached by a former West Indies batsman Phil Simmons and he reckons the compressed nature of T20 makes upsets more likely. Simmons said, he think it's easier to pull off a shock in T20 because recovery time is less than in 50 overs. They have played that little bit more Twenty20 than they had going into the last World Cup, so they are slightly wiser about T20 cricket.